


Over and Over

by Too_Many_Usernames



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth being gay, F/F, Minor Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary, Minor Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, Sort of fix-it, Time Travel, divine pulse misuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 07:24:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20578712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Too_Many_Usernames/pseuds/Too_Many_Usernames
Summary: The first time it happens, It’s because of her failure. They are too weak when they go against Rhea that final time.Waves of their allies and friends fall at the hands of the church and standing Infront of the Immaculate One they are torn apart. Surrounded by fire and screaming she crawls towards Edelgard – covered in blood and dirt, tears streaming from her face she finds her empress, the woman she loves, face down on the stone.Unmoving. Still. Cold. And her cloak oh so red.So she goes back. Over and over and over again.





	Over and Over

The first time it happens, It’s because of her failure. They are too weak when they go against Rhea that final time. Waves of their allies and friends fall at the hands of the church and standing Infront of the Immaculate One they are torn apart. Surrounded by fire and screaming she crawls towards Edelgard – covered in blood and dirt, tears streaming from her face she finds her empress, the woman she loves, face down on the stone. Unmoving. Still. Cold. And her cloak oh so red.

Byleth screams, crying out with desperation to a goddess who has long left her – and then the world stops. Colours invert and slide away into spinning darkness and she reaches for Edelgard’s hand but it’s gone she’s gone she can’t find her –

The world settles.

Her eyes open.

And goddess, when she sees her father looming over her, a concerned look in his eye, she nearly breaks again.

-

She starts by trying to save her father. She had failed before, in the seconds that she was granted to rewind the clock she’d failed. Sothis called it fate, back then – she’d called it bullshit. But it never works. She stays right by her father’s side outside that crumpled church but still she can’t stop it – can’t intervene in time, can’t see what will happen – is blocked by that black-eyed man.

So, she kills Monica – Kronya – whatever – slips into her room at night and holds a pillow over her nose until stops kicking – slips poison in her tea. She blinks away at the last minute. One-time Byleth finds her alone outside the monastery and just shoves her sword through her heart.

Jeralt still dies.

If it’s not Kronya it’s someone else – _something_ else. One time she loses the Blade-Breaker to a fucking _fever_ of all things, right on cue. So, she watches her father die over and over and over until she is nearly consumed with desperation at her failure and accepts it when Sothis, sympathetic but impatient, tells her it is fate. She cries, every time. She expected she’d be hardened to it by now, but it’s so hard to let go – to see the one constant pillar of strength and safety slip away in her arms. And Januarys are always cold, and hard.

So she moves on – tries to, at least.

-

It’s hard, seeing them again. She sees students – all so young – students she saw die, students she killed. She sees Rhea, smiling and beautiful and dignified and behind it, all she can see is the immaculate one – madness and hatred in her green eyes. She sees Catherine, strong and stalwart and all she can see it the woman who walked through the streets of Firdiad, spreading fire, voice stony against the screams of all the people trapped in their burning homes.

And then there’s Edelgard. A part of her is still angry at those questions left unanswered – did she know Kronya was going to kill her father? Know what was going to happen in Remire? She never did explain about the Death Knight. When she sees Edelgard, hiding behind that red mask she almost wants to laugh at the performance of it all. But then she wants to run into the Flame Emperors’ arms – familiar arms – wants to discard all the pretence because she will choose Edelgard, always.

Well, that’s not quite true. One time she loses faith, chooses the deer over the eagle – but she sees Edelgard disappear with Hubert in that crypt before she can reason with her and attempt to broker some peace – but she’s gone in a second, beyond Blyeth's reach and what is she without her? She goes back.

Chooses Edelgard.

Works harder on recruiting students so that they will follow them when they defy the church – so that they won’t have to fall.

It’s easier to mow down faceless lines of soldiers when she hasn’t made them cake and tea for their birthday, after all.

Works on her weapon skills until she can take down anyone with anything.

Some small things are different, every time – how each of them dresses, the position of familiar scars. Some things don’t change. Jeralt always dies, Flayn always leaves – but also, Ferdinand and Hubert, Dorothea and Petra, they always find each other over the shrill shriek of the war. 

And she falls in love with Edelgard, over and over and over.

She loses track of time, but she gets there eventually. And they stand before the Immaculate One in all her glory and knows that this time _this time_ they will not fall.

And later, in the Goddess tower, when she slips her father’s ring onto Edelgard’s finger they step forward into a future that Byleth doesn’t know, that she can’t alter and mend.

And all she feels is relief.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this in a rush to celebrate my brand new hyperfixation... Basically an exploration of a supercharged divine pulse/ the logistics of New Game+ and also the fact that man a bunch of my units were way underleveled before the last fights and if I hadn't coincidentally made another save from earlier in the month, and able to grind levels up I'd be screwed!
> 
> Man I love Edelgard and the Black eagles are all just gay vampires, and with good dad figure I'm bound to write more for three houses


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